Settle in with a Pint, the Tale is about to Begin
Tavern Tales is a new fantasy RPG brought to us by game designer, Dabney Bailey. Read on for the tale of Tavern Tales.
How were you introduced to roleplaying games?
I remember it like it was yesterday. I was in High School and two of my best friends were talking about playing a game after school. I asked if I could come along, and they said sure.
That night, I wrote a several-page backstory for my first character. The next day, I started designing a homebrew class. Clearly, this hobby was meant for me.
Why design RPGs?
I absolutely must have a project to work on. If I don’t, I go crazy. A few recent projects: teaching myself coding, website design, board game design, curating a Youtube channel, and designing Tavern Tales.
Designing RPGs is a natural fit for me because the hobby lends itself so well to homebrewers. It’s not surprising that a person like me loves a game that practically begs players to crack it open and fiddle with all of the mechanics.
How did you conceive the idea for Tavern Tales?
It was more of a series of moments rather than a single epiphany. I’ve designed a dozen RPGs that have never seen the light of day because they were downright terrible. I didn’t realize at the time that I was inadvertently designing the very early versions of Tavern Tales. Each time I built a new RPG, I’d create a few interesting mechanics and keep them for the next game. So, TT already had a head start by the time I started working on it.
I think the big push was in 2008 when D&D 4e came out. I remember being really frustrated by utility powers. I loved the idea that the classes had a set of non-combat options, but when I actually read through them I was disappointed that most utility powers were just combat powers in disguise. I remember thinking, “Why can’t they give each class dedicated exploration and interaction powers?” Then I wondered, “Is that even possible? Can classes like Fighter have interesting non-combat options?”
So, I opened a new document and started experimenting. I started with Tavern Tale’s first ever theme, Warfare. Soldiers are about as straightforward as you can get. I figured if I could give soldiers cool things to do in exploration and interaction, then any fantasy trope could be well-rounded.
I spontaneously invented the dice mechanic while I was on vacation in China. I was riding on a subway and it just came to me out of the wild blue yonder.
What sets Tavern Tales apart from other fantasy RPGs like D&D or Pathfinder?
After I successfully designed the first theme, I felt like my idea had a lot of potential. So, I took a few days off from design and thought about what I believed an RPG should and shouldn’t be. I wrote down TT’s core principles, which have guided me ever since 2008:
- Stay simple, intuitive, and tactical
- Emphasize customization
- Enable well-rounded characters
- Think cinematically, not mathematically
- Grow with ongoing content updates
- Stay free to play, forever
The most important principle is definitely the game’s core focus on customization, freedom, and storytelling. TT tells you over and over again that it is your game, not my game. The game gives you the tools to play whatever and however you want.
This is easiest to notice in the character creation system, which is absurdly flexible. You can build pretty much anything imaginable at character creation. What do you want to play? Steampunk Iron Man? A dragon? A werewolf? You can build these characters in under 5 minutes, easy.
What’s Tavern Tales rule system like?
Rules-light, flexible, and story-driven. The game focuses heavily on story and descriptions, rather than rules and numbers. My goal was to create seamless and intuitive rules that hide out of the way until you need them. I wanted the rules to give a feeling of, “Let me help you do what you want to do,” rather than “This is what you’re allowed to do and not do.”
You are currently running a Kickstarter. What are the details and how can people pitch in?
The Kickstarter is running from January 18 for 30 days. You can visit https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1413330144/tavern-tales for more information. The page has a link to download the current rules totally free, so you can decide if Tavern Tales is right for you. I really appreciate any support you can offer. I’ve been working on this game for over 6 years, and I’d love to finally turn it into a beautiful, fully illustrated hardcover book.
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